New Delhi. As the date of ICC T20 World Cup 2024 approaches, ‘cricket fever’ has started affecting fans all over the world. There are two weeks left for the tournament being jointly hosted by West Indies and America, but everywhere speculations and discussions have started regarding the performance of the champion team and star players. The inaugural match of the ninth T20 World Cup will be played between the teams of America and Canada on June 1. However, the excitement will reach its peak when the teams of arch rivals India and Pakistan will face each other in New York on June 9.
Talking about Team India, Team India led by Rohit Sharma, despite performing brilliantly till the semi-finals in the World Cup 2023, had to face the defeat at the hands of Australia in the final. The pain of this defeat is still in the hearts of the Indian fans. Someone hopes that the Rohit brigade will heal that defeat by becoming champions in the T20 World Cup 2024. Let us tell you that despite excellent performance in every format of cricket, Team India has not won any ICC trophy since 2013. Meanwhile The team had made it to the title matches of the World Test Championship, ODI and T20 World Cup and the ICC Champions Trophy several times but has failed to cross the hurdle of winning the final.
Talking about the T20 World Cup, the Indian team became the champion in 2007 whereas in the 2014 final, it had to be content with becoming the runner up after losing to Sri Lanka. Apart from this, with defeats in the semi-finals in 2016 and 2022, its campaign in the tournament came to a halt. If we look at the top performers of the Indian team in the 8 T20 World Cups so far, left-handed players have proved themselves better than right-handed players in both the fields of bowling and batting. The number of left handed players in any team is three-four or maximum 5, but for India till now only ‘lefties’ have proved to be ‘righties’.
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Let’s take a look at the top performing players of the Indian team in every World Cup.
T20 World Cup 2007: In this tournament held in South Africa, India defeated Pakistan and achieved the honor of becoming the first champion of the T20 World Cup. Left-handed batsman Gautam Gambhir scored the most runs for India, while left-arm fast bowler RP Singh took the most wickets for India.
Top Batter: Gautam Gambhir (227 runs)
Top bowler:RP Singh (12 wickets)
T20 World Cup 2009: In this tournament held in England, Team India could not progress beyond the Super 8 stage. Left-handed batsman Yuvraj Singh scored the most runs for India, while left-handed bowlers Pragyan Ojha and Zaheer Khan won in terms of wickets.
Top Batter: Yuvraj Singh (153 runs)
Top bowler: Pragyan Ojha and Zaheer Khan (7-7 wickets)
T20 World Cup 2010 : In the tournament held in West Indies, Team India had failed to progress beyond the Super 8 stage for the second consecutive time. Left-handed batsman Suresh Raina scored the most runs for India, while left-handed bowler Ashish Nehra took the most wickets for the team.
Top Batter: Suresh Raina (219 runs)
Top bowler: Ashish Nehra (10 wickets)
T20 World Cup 2012 : In this T20 World Cup held in Sri Lanka, once again India’s campaign could not progress beyond the Super 8 stage. This time, in terms of scoring the most runs and taking wickets for India, right-handed players Virat Kohli and Lakshmipathy Balaji won respectively.
Top Batter: Virat Kohli (185 runs)
Top bowler: L Balaji (9 wickets)
T20 World Cup 2014 : Bangladesh became the host of this tournament. The Indian team performed brilliantly and made it to the finals with pride. Won all five matches but lost to Sri Lanka in the final and had to be content with becoming the runner-up. This time, right-handed Virat Kohli became the highest run scorer for India and right-handed bowler R Ashwin became the highest wicket-taker.
Top Batter: Virat Kohli (319 runs)
Top bowler: R Ashwin (11 wickets)
T20 World Cup 2016 : In this T20 World Cup held in India, Team India had to face defeat at the hands of West Indies in the semi-finals. Virat Kohli was India’s top performer in terms of runs and left-arm fast bowler Ashish Nehra was India’s top performer in terms of wickets. Hardik Pandya also took five wickets equal to Nehra but Nehra proved to be better in average and economy.
Top Batter: Virat Kohli (273 runs)
Top bowler:Ashish Nehra and Hardik Pandya (5-5 wickets)
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T20 World Cup 2021 : This tournament was very bad for India and the team could not even enter the Super 8. In the five matches of the group stage, India was able to defeat only Afghanistan, Scotland and Namibia while it lost to Pakistan and New Zealand. Right-handed batsman KL Rahul scored the most runs for India, while Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja (left-arm spinner) were jointly India’s top bowlers in terms of wickets.
Top Batter: KL Rahul (194 runs)
Top bowler: Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja (7-7 wickets)
T20 World Cup 2022 : In this tournament held in Australia, India’s campaign ended with a crushing 10-wicket defeat at the hands of England in the semi-finals. The most runs for India were scored by right-handed batsman Virat Kohli, while left-arm fast bowler Arshdeep made the most runs for India. Maximum 10 wickets were taken by the side.
Top Batter: Virat Kohli (296 runs)
Top bowler:Arshdeep Singh (10 wickets)
Team India could never win against two teams in T20 World Cup, never lost against 4 teams
Virat Kohli has proved to be an exception
Virat Kohli’s bat has been very good in the T20 World Cup. Virat Kohli/Insta
Amidst this ‘domination’ of left handers from India in the T20 World Cup, right hander Virat Kohli has proved to be the biggest exception. ‘King Kohli’ has won the hearts of the fans with his consistently excellent batting performance in this tournament. He was the top scorer for India in 4 editions of the World Cup. Out of these, twice (2014 and 2022) he scored the most runs in the overall tournament. The record of scoring most runs in a single edition of T20 World Cup is also in the name of Virat. He scored 319 runs in the 2014 T20 World Cup. Till now no batsman has been able to score more runs than this in any single T20 World Cup.
Most runs in Virat’s name in T20I and World Cup
Virat is the highest run-scorer in T20I as well as T20 World Cup. In 117 T20I matches, he has so far scored 4037 runs (one century) at an average of 51.75 and strike rate of 138.15. In the T20 World Cup, this run average has jumped to 81.5. ‘King Kohli’ has scored the maximum of 1141 runs at a strike rate of 131.3 while remaining unbeaten 11 times in 25 innings of 27 matches in the five T20 World Cups in which there are 14 half-centuries. While Virat is the highest run scorer in the T20 World Cup in batting, this credit in bowling goes to Shakib Al Hasan of Bangladesh (47 wickets in 36 matches). For India, off-spinner R Ashwin has taken the most wickets in the T20 World Cup (32 wickets in 24 matches).
Tags: Arshdeep Singh, ICC T20 World Cup, Ravindra Jadeja, T20 World Cup
FIRST PUBLISHED: May 17, 2024, 07:51 IST